Separable hour-sleeve for the world travel watch



Sept. 23, 1969 SHAOTANG LEE SEPARABLE HOUR-SLEEVE FOR THE WORLD TRAVEL WATCH Filed Aug 29, 1966 Fig. 6 53 Shaa- Tang Lee INVENTOR.

United States Patent 3,468,122 SEPARABLE HOUR-SLEEVE FOR THE WORLD TRAVEL WATCH Shaotang Lee, 25 Chi-Kuang St., Taichung, Taiwan Continuation-impart of application Ser. No. 417,841, Dec. 11, 1964. This application Aug. 29, 1966, Ser. No. 576,506

Int. Cl. G04b 19/22 US. Cl. 58-43 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Construction associated with a multi-time zone watch for enabling a selective locking of the hour hand into a central Greenwich time dial for adjustment of both the hour hand and the time dial simultaneously to maintain the relationship therebetween while setting the hour hand to a different local time. A sliding sleeve or tube is provided on the hour hand shaft and selectively slid longitudinally therealong by a camming separator which engages collars fixed on the tube and effects a movement of the tube for the selective locking of the hour hand shaft to the Greenwich dial or alternatively locking the hour hand shaft to the drive gear therefor.

The present invention, an improved separable hoursleeve for the World Travel Watch, which is a continuation-in-part of my former patent application, U.S. Ser. No. 417,841 under the name of World Travel Watch filed on Dec. 11, 1964, now Patent No. 3,318,- 085, relates to a specially designed device of a separable hour-sleeve having two layers of tubes, the outer layer tube has a collar at its up end and a reverse collar at its lower end, and an inclined Z- or 8- form bended separator. These improvements will simplify the structure of the separable hour-sleeve very much, a spring :in the between space of the two layers of the hour-sleeve will not be necessary, which was specified in my former patent application, U.S. Ser. No. 417,841, filed on Dec. 11, 1964.

FIG. 1 is an enlarged partial sectional View showing the relationship between the hour-sleeve, Greenwich time dial disc and the hour gear when the separator is at its original position.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged partial sectional view detailing the relationship bet-ween the above mentioned three parts when the separator is at its pulled position.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged top view of the hour-gear and the under surface of the lower reverse collar.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing the inner layer tube of the hour-sleeve.

FIG. 5 shows an enlarged longitudinal sectional view of the separator.

FIG. 6 shows a top plan view of the separator.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing the outer layer tube of the hour-sleeve.

FIG. 8 is a bottom plan view of the lower reverse collar.

Referring now more specifically to the drawings, in FIGS. 1 and 2 the numerals 66, 67, 68, '50 and 51 indicating the hour-hand, minute-hand, second-hand, minute-sleeve and second-shaft respectively, numerals 45, 52, 53 and 46 showing the hour-hand gear, minute-hand gear, second-hand gear and the hour-sleeve separator each. This new designed hour-sleeve is made up of two 3,468,122 Patented Sept. 23, 1969 "ice layers of shaft-like members or tubes 37 and 38 as shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4. The upper part 41 of the inner layer tube 38 is a simple tube able to pass through the central hole of the Greenwich time dial disc and the lower part has protruding strips 39, the length of inner layer tube being a little shorter. The outer layer tube 37 has matinggrooves 36 at its inside, has a collar 42 with rough surface and rounded bottom surface as specified in my former application at its upper end and has a reverse collar with projected strips 54 and a rounded surface ring at its lower end. The outer layer tube is a little longer than the inner layer tube, therefore there is a space 36 in FIG. 1 when the separator is at its original condition. As shown in FIG. 3 there are numerous incisions 72 at the hour gear 45 for receiving the projected strips 54 of the reverse collar 43. FIGS. 1, 2 and 5 showing the separator 46 is with inclined Z-form, bended at 63 and 63', the rounded camming portions 63 and 63' are for supporting the rounded ring 42 of the upper collar and pressing the rounded ring of lower reverse collar 43 respectively, the separator 46 is slidably mounted on the frame by the screws 64 and 64', so when the separator is pulled the upper collar 42 is pressed upwards and fixed with the receiver at the Greenwich time dial disc 70, at this condition both the hour-hand and the Greenwich time dial can be turned by winding the stem-winder simultaneously. When the separator is pushed back the lower reverse collar is fixed to the receiver of hour gear by the pressing of the rounded portion 63 and the hour-hand runs as usual in a watch. This device will simplify the structure of the World Travel Watch very much and the caliber (thickness) of the new World Travel Watch considerably and be flat as an ordinary automatic watch.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principle of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

1. A separable hour-sleeve device comprising specially designed two layer tubes, the outer layer tube being longitudinally shiftable, a little longer than the inner layer tube and having an upper collar with an upwardly directed rough surface and a rounded surface at its under side, and a lower reverse collar with downwardly directed projected strips and a rounded surface on its upper side, the outer layer tube having grooves in its inside wall and the inner layer tube having projected strips on its out side slidably received within said grooves, upper and lower receivers with numerous incisions above and below said collars, and an inclined generally S-form bended separator with two bends positioned 'between the collars for alternatively pressing the upper collar upwards and the lower reverse collar downwards to their receivers respectively.

2. Adjustment construction for a .multi-time zone watch comprising a first inner elongated shaft-like member, a time indicating hand fixed to said member toward a first end thereof, a second outer elongated shaft-like member slidably and non-rotatably engaged with the inner member, said outer member having first and second ends, outwardly enlarged collar-like portions fixed to the first and second ends of said outer member, each collar-like portion having a bearing surface directed generally toward the other collar-like portion along the length of the second member and a gripping surface in generally opposed relation to the bearing surface, a separator movably positioned generally perpendicularly across said second member between said collar-like portions, said separator including oppositely directed carnming portions for alternately engaging each collar-like portion while disengaging from the other collar-like portion to effect a longitudinal shifting of said second member, and a pair of receiver units located longitudinally outward of the collar-like portions for an alternate engagement therewith by the collar-like portions upon a longitudinal shifting of said second member.

3. The construction of claim 2 wherein said time indicating hand constitutes an hour hand, and said receiver units constitute a time dial and an hour hand driving gear, the engagement of a collar-like portion with the time dial enabling a simultaneous movement of the hour UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,318,085 5/1967 Lee 58-43 FOREIGN PATENTS 827,921 12/ 1951 Germany.

RICHARD B. WILKINSON, Primary Examiner GEORGE H. MILLER, IR., Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 5885.5 

